Tensions ramp up as both Turner and Marcos reap the darker side of their respective ‘deals with the devil’, Sentinel Services continue to apply pressure and Reed’s examination of the hard drives recovered from Baton Rouge uncovers some painful truths.

When Roderick Campbell first appeared in a white coat, it was clear that the character was sinister. This time out, we get a real sense of the lengths to which he will go to win his war against mutants, and it isn’t pretty. Even Agent Turner, still flush with rage at reliving the loss of his daughter all over again, is given pause by Campbell’s actions. Interestingly, just as it seemed the show was going to veer into the sort of plot logic trap Inhumans manages on a regular basis, it’s actually Turner himself who points out the obvious flaw in Campbell’s plan, and the response is quite chilling.

Meanwhile, Reed discovers some information about Lauren’s new beau, illusionist Wes, in examining the hard drives recovered from Baton Rouge. It’s a rare mis-step for the show, giving a nonsense sub-plot to the episode which casts the character of Reed back several weeks, generates a bit of artificial conflict for the characters and has an unsatisfying conclusion which basically negates the point of having it in there at all.

Elsewhere, we have Marcos and his unfortunate debt to Carmen. I don’t mind this plot in principle – the idea of Marcos being in thrall to his past while trying to be better as he faces the new challenge of fatherhood is a good one, loaded with dramatic potential. Unfortunately, this week it all feels a little stretched out and artificially padded. Carmen is actually possibly the worst character in the show, and this episode really emphasises that – she’s bad, basically because she likes being bad, hurting people and making money. There’s no redemptive side to the character, no sense of believability, and what could be interesting depth instead becomes petulant nonsense. Lorna doesn’t get much better this week either, and all round it just drags.

And then there’s Johnny, chasing after Clarice on the pretence that nobody can be left wandering around who knows the location of the Mutant Underground with Sentinel cracking down. It’s a decent idea – send Johnny to recover Clarice, generate some more tension between them etc. Unfortunately (again) the execution is off, by some margin. The interaction between the two feels awkward, the sub plot they go through together feels simultaneously padded and also cursory, considering what it deals with, and it just feels unsatisfying. It resolves nicely, with a single look passing over Johnny’s face conveying a whole range of conflict, but we didn’t need all the rest of it to get to that point.

It’s a shame, the show has really been going from strength to strength to this point, and each episode added something to the narrative pacing and structure, but this week it just feels like wheel-spinning, like the writers just suddenly found out there was one more episode than they had planned for and threw something together to pad it out.

Verdict: A rare misfire of an episode that hopefully proves to be the exception rather than the rule. There’s merit here, but it’s too little and too far apart among bland padding by the standards of the show. Disappointing. 5/10

Greg D. Smith